The announcement of Sonic Colours for Wii and DS was a bit of a bolt from the blue (pardon the pun), with just a rendered trailer and short press release to go on. Now with the cat out of the bag the first proper information is starting to trickle through, with a Nintendo Power interview with Sonic honcho Takashi Iizuka revealing plenty about the upcoming adventure.
The Wii version is being developed by the same team responsible for the decent Secret Rings and not-so-decent Black Knight Sonic titles, with the DS version created by Sonic Team with help from recent handheld hog helpers Dimps. Iizuka himself will be overseeing both titles, but in a more supervisory role than first thought.
According to the article, the Wisps came about as attempts to keep Sonic moving whilst including new moves that would expand the gameplay without slowing the player down too much, something that Sonic Unleashed rather missed the mark on. Iizuka himself puts it in words every Sonic fan wants to hear but finds it so hard to believe:
I feel we really succeeded in embracing our core concept of “100% pure Sonic style high speed action.
With the platform sections primarily taking place in 2D, with wide open 3D spaces reserved for faster gameplay, this could be the title to fulfil the early promise displayed by Sonic Unleashed, but we're remaining reserved until some hands-on time at E3 in a few days' time. Until then, check out the magazine scans at TSSZ News and keep your fingers crossed that this year the Sonic Cycle will finally be broken.
[source tssznews.com, via tssznews.com]
Comments 47
By the same team as The Black Knight? Oh no...
Based on the screenshots, this looks properly good. Can't wait for some hands-on feedback
From the developers of Black Knight? Oh god no...
More Sonic crap...
Only the Wii version is being made by the team responsible for The Black Knight. So even if that did mean Sonic Colours Wii will be utter garbage, the DS version still has a chance at being good.
Does that developer even know what '100% pure Sonic style' means?
Looks like the DS version will be the one to buy
I thought Black Knight was great, only hindered by the extremely moronic choice to have the waggle be the sword swing.
@Monkeh: "Crap"
Ha...!
Sonic? No, I'm not thirsty.
Not waiting for this one......
Same team who made Black Knight? Hoo boy...
Just a guess here, but like all trailers that trailer was probably the best bits of the game
the guys who made the masterpiece black knight...
no thanks
In all fairness Black Knight was kind of bound to the on-rails format that the "storybook series" was apparently based on. Maybe the team can do better now its back to usual Sonic (plus aliens)
Also didn't Sonic Unleashed and Sonic 4 break the Sonic Cycle? They didn't bother waiting to tell everyone about Werehog and Chip was quite a bearable addition in comparison. Sonic 4 has no new friends and has been looking mostly fine bar the delay
This is going to be ****. First of all, being made by the guys who did Sonic and the Black Knight and the Secret Rings is not a good sign for your game. Second, Sonic 4 hasn't even come out yet and yet Sega decides to go ahead and release another Sonic game around the same time Sonic 4 is expected to be released which is late 2010.WHY!? Why would you do that? Most people are going to want Sonic 4 compared to this. Finally, once again Sega is using another stupid gimmick in their Sonic games with these creatures called Wisps. Just keep it simple! It took Sega this long to figure it out for Sonic 4 and yet their going back to their old ways with this.
The only thing great about Sonic and the Black Knight was the song "Knight of the Wind." Otherwise... hide the children...
I'm liking the looks of those screens. I'm still not confident about Tails' inclusion, because I'm sure they'll have a separate game for him probably using the Werehog engine.
@RebeccaGunn
Your one of the few that could actually stand Chip. Most people I know including reviewers hated Chip including Lee from Still Gaming and the entire Screwattack crew. In fact Chip was one of the biggest complaints against the game along with the Werehog. Sonic Unleashed is much better than the storybook games, but it could've been so much more had Sega kept it simple with just the daytime levels. Also, one of my biggest complaints was having to collect those Sun and Moon medals to proceed to the next level. I know not all versions of the game had this, but it was so annoying having to collect these and some of them were hard to find and I wasn't having any fun collecting these which makes me wonder why Sega decided to get rid of this in some versions, but keep it in others.
If it's like a bunch of beefed up unleashed daytime levels then yes, technically it COULD be good.
@pixelman - Its confirmed only sonic is playable. Also the screens look pretty good. The DS Version is essentially Sonic Rush 3 and the Wii version looks like the daylight stages on Unleashed with alot more 2D.
The DS version could be good but I'm not so sure about the wii version. I haven't played sonic and the black knight but sonic and the secret rings was terrible.
@jackaroo If the wii version is like the daytime stages of sonic unleashed then maybe it could be good.
Three words:
The Sonic Cycle
That is all.
I'm trying to keep my expectations low.
Don't get me wrong, this game looks awsome!
I think Winslow there has the right idea -- keep your expectations low. The screens look good and it sounds like there's potential, but they've gotten us before.
That said, we may be rounding a corner here. Sonic Unleashed's day levels definitely showed promise in that the developers had an idea on how to make something decent. With Sonic & All-Stars Racing being better than expected and Sonic 4 on the way, things actually might be looking up for the Sonic brand. And with THAT said, I defer to what I first wrote.
Pfft. I don't care what anyone says. To me, Sonic Unleashed proved that there's a Sonic game that can stand toe-to-toe with a Mario game. But yeah, I hope they start making it soon.
So they're returning to form? And it's gonna be Sonic-only? OK. I'll wait for the Metascore to be the judge of that
Not surprised to see nitpicking already going on here, people are already saying its crap just from the developers, (FYI, I know quite a few people which Black Knight is one of their favorite Sonic games.) when I doubt most of the people here even played BK. Probably just went over to Metacritic. and said "Oh its crap." Also about the gimmick thing, do you guys even know what the gimmick is? They haven't even said what it was and you guys are calling it lame, they only thing they mentioned is that the wisps will give Sonic new powers, which sounds no diffrent than Mega Man.
i dont know bout the others but.. i enjoyed Sonic and the Black Knight. the graphics were damn amazing, and it was just hella fun... as for Sonic Unleashed, had they keep the game to Sonic levels only it wouldnt have been so bad.
Open areas?
Like, all range-mode open?
In a Sonic game?
Oh no.
Same team that made the Black Knight? Oh no...
STOP SAYING, "From the same people who did Black Knight? This is going to be lame." WE GET IT! NOT MANY PEOPLE LIKED THAT GAME!
And I happened to like Black Knight...
FROM THE CREATORS OF BLA....nevermind Well, as long as there's no useless waggle in the Wii version, I'm okay.
The Sonic cycle is in full force yet again.
and stop talking about the sonic cycle <_<
Other than the sonic cycle, there IS the rinse cycle and the spin cycle.
But we all know by now that the Wii is the dumping ground for third-party shovelware. So don't get TOO excited, people.
Meh, call me if it turns out to not suck. (I'll have my eye on the DS one though)
I also though the Black Knight was an decent game, certainly preferred it to Secret Rings and Unleashed.
I was leaning towards the ds version anyway. I hope the wii version makers have learned from their past mistakes.
Black Knight wasn't the disaster everyone said it was, but it wasn't really THAT "good" imo. Aspects of Unleashed and Secret Rings weren't bad either....pleas be good Sonic Colours, please...
Another promise of "back to basics". I still don´t dare to hope for this one.
@LEGEND-MARIOID: Yeah, Black Knight wasn't great, but it was good enough to give me some faith in the series. Granted it was nowhere near as good as a Sonic Adventure, but it was still fun. I'd be surprised if this one just outright sucked.
Is this the "Huge new title starring one of gamings most reconisable heroes" game that Nintendo Power was set to reveal in their new issue? If anyone knows, tell me! PLEASE LORD! HAVE MY HOPES OF NEW KIRBY GAME BEEN SHATTERED! (Animal crossing woulda been nice) Anyone know it
Secret Rings was such a good idea, and its execution was a'ight. It suffered from the crappy ring leveling system though, because it wasn't balanced for all the powers you could equip. You could actually run PAST scripted events if you turned on all the unlockable speed powerups, which would break the game horrendously. Also, it began terribly, because you need to level up Sonic's controls and speed to get him somewhere that's responsive. Too many bad ideas and bad execution really brought that down.
Unleashed though was a massive improvement. Like Burnout mixed with a platformer. Its the only 3D Sonic game to have polish at all. No clipping through walls, great controls, great mechanics (the drift and slide kick need to be in every Sonic game going forward). Unfortunately, 70-80 percent of the game WASN'T that stuff, and was that werehog stuff. Which was an okay brawler, but repetitive as heck...and not Sonic in the least.
Here's hoping they've really learned a thing or two since that game. I'm sure it'll be better than their past games though, simply because it wasn't annualized. Those last two wii exclusives came out in February and needed more time in the oven. This game has clearly missed that release, and Sonic 4 was delayed too - SEGA knows they need to polish their Sonic games going forward, and these latest games HAVE been in development for longer than usual. Good luck to it.
"return to form"
It seems that SEGA has been trowing the phrase around alot these days.
Mildly hopeful. Sonic Galaxy -der, I mean, Sonic Colors has, like, 1% information right now, so who knows? I'm hopeful - personally, I enjoyed Sonic & the Secret Rings and Sonic Unleashed. Black Knight? Not my favorite, but it had its likable elements. Viva Sonic, and here's hoping!
Screenshots like really nice! Perhaps they have finally put together the good parts from the previous games (Secret Rings, Black Knight) and removed all the bad to create something excellent. As a long time Sonic fan, I won't give up hope yet.
All I've ever wanted a console Sonic to do these days is to not just "try", but "try hard" at being good. Sonic's supposed to be reputable, top tier platforming right up there with Mario, but most of what we've gotten is "...ok..." games, good enough and long enough for perhaps a good rental, but not the stuff built to remain in one's collection til the end of a system's life. Look at Mario Galaxy 2-- THAT game is collection material. All people have wanted is for SEGA to stand up for it's mascot and pour the resources into making a console Sonic BRILLIANT, so I wholeheartedly understand the negativity here. Agreed, I've personally noticed a changing tide lately and Sonic Unleashed I think is a GREAT step in the right direction, but we need MORE of that, TIGHTEN up the gameplay, and MAKE it a worthy purchase that not just diehards, but ANY gamer would want to have in their collection.
Tap here to load 47 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...